Rob and I have bought a small plot in Mid Wales near where we live and the plan is to build a 4-bed energy efficient house. It is going to drive us insane! In the meantime, as a university researcher and trainee archivist I'm going to explore some of the records out there on and effecting self-builds. Wish us luck…

Sunday, 11 December 2011

Well, we still have an entrance and the hedge looks like its always been the few feet back it is now and Rob planted bulbs yesterday so in Spring, when hopefully much activity will the place a literal building site, we may get a few daffodils and tulips surprising us and the probably weary neighbours.

I forget that other people must be watching the site and wondering (like us!) when stuff will happen and what sort of place will emerge...no doubt it'll look raw and odd for a good while but hopefully not too offensive. I sat next to a man in the vets waiting room on Thursday (he with cat me with elderly dog) and it turns out he lives in the next village and he asked if it was the plot down the lane towards blah and yep, thats us. He's ridden his bike past the mud and almost imperceptible action apparently.

Not a lot else has happened, well, nothing on site anyway. When, in response to the question "will we still get our foundations in before Christmas" you receive a "it would be nice wouldn't it?" from the man in control of your house it begins to feel like you're in a twilight zone where little is real and mirrors abound.

In the past I've found that I can survive tough things by parceling them up into doable chunks of work but when there are two of you you can't do that for the other person so this build is the opposite of containable. It can erupt into your life at any moment; in the bath; waking up; at work; with friends; walking dogs; with family - and it sucks out whatever energy it can regardless of whatever else you're doing or need to do or had planned to do. Thats the thing, I can't plan to contain it. I have been totally out manouvred.

Anyway, while timber cassettes are being designed (we hope) and the method statement approved by the ecologist (we hope), the spec is being wrestled into being so we can sign a contract next week (that dreamy sort of twilight zone idea of next week). Including sub contracter quotes etc the spec also needs us to provide provisional sums for everything from lighting and flooring to kitchens and doors and that odd phrase "door furniture".

We're not fancy with most things - some Bath Store january sales should do we think, and between Carpert Right and Custom Trading for sisal/wool practical stuff for most of the house and something a bit softer for Rob's toes in the bedroom. We're having some good tough sisal at the front door (my favourite bit of the house as its where I come in with the dogs twice a day and its designed to accommodate us, some slate in the kitchen area and polished concrete in the laundry and playroom.

Tiles for the kitchen seem straightforward - we both like plane brick-like white ones, but we haven't much of an idea about the bathrooms. Wandering around shops being repelled by tiled borders is a strange pastime but I'm sure something fairly simple will be put together. We have equally little idea about kitchen work tops - not really being into showing off slabs of granite or blingy quartz but not wanting to live with Rob worrying about beautiful wood for the rest of our days, we'll have to settle on something straightforward and tough pretty soon. What number this will be in that 10,000 decisions-to-be-made list I have no idea. Odd when there is no house to speak of yet...

The kitchen itself may be made by Rob's old neighbour Brett who made his last kitchen and is very pretty as well as sturdy. We've got to look at endless lights that look very alike now...but this is the fun bit and, no doubt, requires a bit of thought so that a year down the line we don't end up with something silly and only ourselves to blame.

But I've dug these up from Rob's pics. The first is of the construction of the entrance and the second from the field above our lane and plot...